The Social Travel Summit will be held in Hamburg, Germany on Tuesday, 21st April 2015 and Wednesday, 22nd April 2015. The arrival day for delegates is Monday 20th April 2015. In the afternoon, a variety of city tours will be organised for all delegates – this is the perfect opportunity for industry delegates to meet and network with the bloggers while they enjoy the sights of Hamburg. The tours leave from the east Hotel at 3pm. This will be followed by a welcome reception in the evening. After the closing of the Summit on Wednesday 22nd April, delegates will be invited to join one of the Instagram walks around Hamburg. A closing reception will be held in the evening.

These are the keynotes and sessions delegates can expect at the Social Travel Summit:

Profitable Partnerships: How brilliant bloggers & brands band together to drive serious success (for everyone.)

by Andrew Davis, author of ‘Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships’

We live in an information overload world. Two million blog posts are published every single day. As professional bloggers, we’ve cut through that clutter. We’ve tapped into something special: a loyal base of valuable consumers that are inspired by the content we create.

As brands, we’re looking to leverage the audiences of others to drive new revenue.
But our goals are at odds: the content creators must maintain the trust of their audience, while the brand pays for great content. So, how do we bridge the gap? In this, hour-long keynote session, best-selling author and former television producer Andrew Davis, will help us explore a new kind of mutually-beneficial creative partnership. A partnership that promotes long-term commitments. As content creators, you’ll be challenged to explore new revenue models (not revenue streams) for your business. As brands, you’ll be inspired to foster close-knit, creative relationships, with the content creators you value that drive real revenue.

We’ll explore the Online Influence Pyramid, take a look at how great content increases demand and we’ll uncover the last three battles for online attention. You’ll leave inspired to re-think the opportunities in an ever-evolving online world. Are you ready to create a profitable partnership?

Blogs & Brands: Walking a Fine Line into the Future of Social

by Andrew Grill, Global Partner, IBM Interactive Experience

A blogger since 2000, former CEO of social influence platform Kred, and now Global Partner, Social Business at IBM, Andrew Grill will look at the fine line that brands and bloggers must tread when working together, what social means for bloggers and brands today, and what the move from social media to social business will mean in the future. After examining the decline of the “Klout score” as a measure of a bloggers true influence he’ll explore how to be an authentic blogger to protect the value of a blog’s brand so that it is of optimal value to travel brand clients. Ultimately, it’s all about the challenge of continually inspiring people to travel.

Andrew’s experience as an entrepreneur running 6 start-ups over the last 12 years will also be used to look at how brands need to think like an entrepreneur to engage with bloggers. An avid traveler, Andrew has been to 106 cities in 33 countries since 1993.

From Neuromarketing Strategy to Social Media Tactics: How to Get into the Minds of Your Audience

by Sara Fay, Social Media Neuromarketing I Strategic Consultant, WordofMedia

Building the bridge between neuromarketing strategy and social media tactics, this session will explore general findings in neuroscience and how you can use them to improve perception, attention, engagement, loyalty, recognition, and demand. Topics to be covered include content planning through neuroprofiling, honing brand resonance and impact, the power of multichannel/multimedia content, what to include in your social content, and how to structure social content during a campaign. The talk will be fast-paced in order to cover all of the material and provide actionable takeaways so do be aware, you will want to take notes.

Engagement to Conversion: 4 Simple Steps for Stronger Online Results

by André Morys, CEO & Founder, Web Arts

Most DMOs and travel sites invest a huge effort into acquiring traffic and suffer from a weak conversion rate. André Morys identifies 4 crucial points in the user’s journey that every marketer needs to know to increase conversion rates. Whatever your conversion objective may be – from downloading tourism brochures to booking hotel nights to getting newsletter signups – this presentation will provide insights for better results.

SEO in 2015: How to Earn Your Ranking

by Maximillian Muhr, Head of SEO, BILD and CEO poliSYS UG

Over the last 10 years, SEO has gained a negative reputation. Most SEO tactics have been about manipulating Google by spamming with backlinks and keyword density. This will become a huge problem as Google punishes sites that use such tactics. But SEO doesn’t need to be a bad thing.
Maximilian D. Muhr practices a rare kind of totally white hat SEO. In this basic SEO session you will be inspired to care about Google and do things right. We will have a quick look at SEO that works, including relevance for users, snippet-optimization, rel+Author (Google+), structure, and quality. Max will explain how Google knows if content of a specific URL is relevant for the searcher and will suggest what WordPress plugins are needed for SEO success.

Plus: In-depth Site Clinics
Max will review up to 12 blogs from participants and meet with a select few of the bloggers one-on-one (others can listen in) to explain how they can improve their SEO results.

Bloggers to Bloggers Panel: Business Models

by Kash Bhattacharya, Melvin Böcher, Erik van Erp, Janice Waugh, Yvonne Zagermann

Professional bloggers, like all small business owners, are constantly searching for ways to refine their business models and improve their success for themselves and their clients. All of our panelists have successful travel platforms and will give a brief overview of their business models and monetization strategies. Then we’ll break into small, informal groups for Q&A so that participants can dig deeper into the strategies that are of greatest interest to them. Monetization strategies to be discussed include:

• social media campaigns
• affiliate sales
• special projects
• video campaigns
• multiple revenue streams including newsletters

Industry to Industry Panel: Working with Bloggers

by Catharina Fischer, Nicholas Montemaggi, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, Kelly Harrison, Emma Gorman

There’s an art and a science to blogger collaborations. Bloggers each take different approaches to travel, have unique platforms, and offer different value. Understanding how to get the most out of a blogger and his/her platforms is an art. Doing so in a cost-effective manner and measuring results is a science. After a quick round with each of our panelists giving an overview on their strategies for working with bloggers, we’ll break into groups for Q&A so that participants can dig deeper into the strategies of greatest interest to them. Strategies to be discussed include:

• social media campaigns
• special projects for content development
• blog trips and short-term collaborations
• long-term blogger programmes
• brand partnership and ambassador programmes

The Think Tank – Navigating the Future

Facilitated by Alastair McKenzie, Travel Journalist and Social Media Influencer

A key objective of The Social Travel Summit is to improve and expand the ways in which bloggers and the travel industry collaborate. The “Think Tank” is a session in which delegates from both sides of the equation brainstorm and discuss the challenges of collaboration and identify solutions that will benefit all.

At STS Leipzig 2014 the Think Tank involved approximately thirty delegates who were asked to discuss five specific topics and come up with recommendations, suggestions, or solutions. Their discussions, findings, and recommendations are presented in the STS Think Tank Report that can be downloaded here. A report on the 2015 Think Tank will be published following the Summit.

The Fine Art of Pitching and Negotiating: Blogger/Brand Relationships

by Tika Larasati, Kash Bhattacharya, Catharina Fischer, David Arcifa, Abigail King

What travel blogger fulfilling his/her dream of writing and traveling ever thought that they would be in sales? Well, pitching a project or campaign and closing a deal that financially supports a travel blogging career is a sales process. In this session, industry will reveal what they like to see when being pitched and bloggers will share their most successful techniques for closing a deal.

Claim Your Fame

by Andrew Davis

Content builds trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships drive revenue. In today’s online universe everyone has an audience. Overnight, a YouTuber with a loyal fan base can drive revenue for any gadget they touch. Subscribers can be inspired to buy something from their favourite e-mail newsletter. Embrace the power of a loyal subscriber base to generate new revenue in new ways. Learn five simple secrets Andrew Davis learned in the television business to foster your talent and create demand for almost any product in the universe. He’ll show you innovative ways to drive revenue working with brands of all sizes. You’ll walk away inspired to maintain your objectivity and authenticity while you build your brand. Are you ready to claim your fame?

Contracts & Conduct: Protect Your Blog and Serve Your Clients

by James Thomlinson and Mario Cacciottolo

Learn how to negotiate a contract without giving away the store and then deliver on the contract within your blog’s ethic. As a professional, your work must be robust, legally sound, and stand up to scrutiny. This session will discuss the nature of a fair contract – what it should and should not include. It will explore blogger performance standards and how to maintain those standards when working with a commercial partner so that you protect the integrity and value of all your platforms and deliver real value to current and future clients.

Public Speaking: It’s Easier Than You Think

by Shane Dallas, Speaker and Founder, The Travel Camel

With a completely updated presentation building on his public speaking workshop at The Social Travel Summit in 2014, Shane will demonstrate how everyone can become a competent public speaker. Proper speech structure, writing, rehearsal, and delivery are the keys to easily delivering an effective presentation. Shane will provide you with the tips you need to know to move from the computer to the stage.

From Smartphone Video Strategies to Cutting Edge Storytelling Campaigns

by Caspar Diederik, Rachelle Lucas

With YouTube.com commonly recognized as the second largest search engine on the net, there can be no doubt that video will continue to grow in importance for online travel influencers. But not just any video will do. A successful video transmits emotions via imagery – it is visual storytelling. In this session two video makers with completely different styles will share secrets of smartphone video production and collaborating with industry on video storytelling campaigns.

The Social Maze

Host: Shane Dallas, Speaker and Founder, The Travel Camel
Panelists: Matt Long, Rachelle Lucas, Michael Turtle, Becki Enright, Yvonne Zagermann, Rob Lloyd

The Social Maze – the game show that looks at “the Y factor” of social. Panellists Poke the platforms, Share their truths and Vote Down myths. Friends don’t count in this game – they’ll be Hungout to dry as Engagement hits the Numbers and contestants Circle, Stumble and Digg into the hottest issues of social media. Join us for a fun, frantic and informative wrap-up to the Summit.

Build Influence with a Corporate Blog

by Angelika Schwaff

Look at a successful travel brand’s social strategy and you’ll often find a corporate blog at its centre. Blogging is growing in importance for travel brands and many companies are leveraging the knowledge, expertise and experience of travel bloggers to make theirs stand out. In this session travel bloggers and corporatebrands will share tips, advice and practical steps for corporate blog success.

More information about the conference programme will be available soon.